Sonia seeks liberal Central package for flood-affected areas

Congress President Sonia Gandhi made an aerial survey of the worst flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand and UP after which she spoke to PM Manmohan Singh and sought a liberal package for them to tackle the situation.

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday made an aerial survey of the worst flood-affected areas
of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh after which she spoke to
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought a liberal package
for them to tackle the situation.

Accompanied by Defence Minister A K Antony and
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Gandhi flew over
Hardwar along Ganga and saw large areas of the Bijnaur,
Muzzafarnagar, Rampur, Moradabad and Barielly Districts
inundated by flood waters of Ganga, Ramganga and Kosi rivers.

According to a statement issued by Singh, she
saw a number of villages totally cut off, some of the kutcha
houses totally damaged. She also saw that water had entered
some parts of Rampur and Moradabad towns and canal and roads
have breached at some places.

Besides, she observed that there was an extensive
damage to the standing Kharif crop, Singh said.

Immediately after reaching Delhi, Gandhi spoke to the Prime Minister on phone and requested him to have the damage
caused by floods and cloud bursts in Uttarakhand and UP
assessed immediately and ensure that a liberal package was
made available to them through the National Calamity Relief
Fund.

Gandhi was briefed at the Dehradun airport by the
Defence Officials about the rescue operations conducted by the
Army in the incident of landslide in Almora District and other
areas of Uttarakhand.

Sixty people have died and thousands rendered
homeless due to the floods in Uttarakhand.

Nine people died on Tuesday in rain-related incidents in
Uttar Pradesh where flood situation aggravated due to rise in
the level of major rivers in several districts, affecting road
and railway traffic.